The Zen of Writing combines words and direct intuitive insight that takes your writing where you want it to go.
Author: Donald L. Vasicek
Award-winning writer/filmmaker Donald L. Vasicek studied producing, directing and line producing at the Hollywood Film Institute under the acclaimed Dov Simens and at Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute. He studied screenwriting at The Complete Screenplay, Inc., with Sally Merlin, daughter of the famed Hollywood Merlin family of screenwriters and writers, as his mentor.
Don has taught, mentored, and is a script consultant for over 300 writers, directors, producers, actors and production companies.
He has also acted in NBC’s “Mystery of Flight 1501”, ABC’s Father Dowling starring Thomas Bosley, and Red-Handed Productions’ “Summer Reunion.” These activities have resulted in his involvement in over 100 movies during the past 23 years, from major studios to independent films including MGM’s $56 million “Warriors of Virtue”, Paramount Classic’s “Racing Lucifer”, American Picture’s “The Lost Heart” and “Born To Kill” starring the Charles Bronson of Korea, Bobby Kim, and his internationally-known brother, Richard, who directed, Incline Productions, Inc.’s “Born To Win”, 20th Century Fox’s “Die Hard II” starring Bruce Willis with Rennie Harlan as director, and Joel Silver as producer, Olympus Films+, LLC’s “Haunted World” with Emmy-nominated PBS Producer Alison Hill, and Olympus Films+, LLC’s “Faces”, “Oh, The Places You Can Go” and the award-winning “The Sand Creek Massacre” documentary film.
Don also has written and published over 500 books, short stories and articles. His books include “How To Write, Sell, And Get Your Screenplays Produced” and “The Write Focus.” He has been a guest screenwriting and filmmaking columnist for Hollywood Lit. Sales, Moondance International Film Festival’s e-zine, Screenwriter’s Forum, Screenplace, Screenplayers.Net, Screenwriters.Net, Screenwriters Utopia, Spraka & Kinsla (Swedish), Inkwell Watch, and Ink On the Brain. Writing recognition includes Houston’s WorldFest International Film Festival, Chesterfield’s Writer’s Film Project, Writer’s Digest, The Sundance Institute, The Writer’s Network, and the Rocky Mountain Writer’s Guild, Inc.
Don completed producing “The Sand Creek Massacre”, a documentary film project that includes the completed and award-winning documentary short, a book, a classroom video, Interactive Media, a study guide, and a lesson plans. The film is being distributed by Films Media Group.
Don is on the board of directors of the American Indian Genocide Museum in Houston. He is the founder and owner of Olympus Films+, LLC, a global writing and filmmaking company and a screenwriting volunteer on AllExperts.com.
Don’s screenwriting agent is Robin Kaver of the Robert Freedman Dramatic Agency, Inc., 1501 Broadway, Suite 2301
New York, NY 10036, 212-840-5751.
Juxtaposing in writing and screenwriting is most effective if you think in terms of what film is. Film is a visual medium. Therefore, the writer/screenwriter must write visually. Writing visually includes striving to “show” rather than “tell” the story and the characters. The most powerful way to do this is to utilize the mingling of opposites or a dichotomy.
For example, if you have a character who represents evil in your story, then juxtaposing your “hero” or main character in your story to this kind of “villain” [in fiction, villains do not have any redeeming characteristics while the antagonist in your story should have, at least, 1 redeeming characteristic) should represent good, the opposite of evil, and thus, a dichotomy.
In summary, the most effective use of juxtaposing in movies, is what is totally opposite of each other, whether that is characters, objects, locations, etc. This kind of juxtaposing creates conflict, and in fiction, if there is no conflict, there is no drama, and the resulting effect of that is a flat story with no energy. Some would call this kind of story/film/movie, boring.
I hope this is of help to you.
Best Regards, Don Vasicek Olympus Films+, LLC/The Zen of Writing
Screenings/Interviews (“The Sand Creek Massacre” is an award-winning documentary short film. “Ghosts of Sand Creek”, which is in development, is a feature length motion picture):
The Indie Gathering Film Festival – Cleveland, OH Trail Dance Film Festival – Duncan, Oklahoma (Winner, Best Native American Film) American Indian Film Festival – Rice University – Houston, TX (Winner, Best Native American Film Short) The Heard Museum Film Festival – Phoenix, AZ Metropolitan State College of Denver – Denver, CO Walnut Hills Elementary School – 4th Grade – Centennial, CO Broomfield Independent Film Series – Broomfield, CO Estes Park Film Festival – Estes Park, CO American Indian Genocide Museum – Houston Phillip S. Miller Library Bull Theater Project – Castle Rock, CO Watonga, Oklahoma Schools – Watonga, Oklahoma California Center for Native Americans – San Bernardino, CA Houston CTV, HCCT- Houston Los Angeles Paxico Projection Series – Los Angeles, CA The Bug Theater – Denver, CO New York/Tribeca Monday Night Shorts – New York/Tribeca Stars in the Desert Film Festival – Tuba City, Arizona Duke University Center for Documentary Studies/The Happening Film Festival – Durham, NC DCTV/Colorado Reel/TV – Denver, CO LA Comcast/Time Warner/The Gigi Iam Show – Los Angeles, CA Docu-Link NY/LA/London Shooting People – New York/London The Denver Indian Center – Denver, CO Indianer Inuit: The North American Native Film Festival – Berlin, Germany Thailand Kasetsart University George Mason University – Virginia Philadelphia DUTV – Philadelphia, PA Boston Ruff Cutz Film Festival – Boston, MA Los Angeles Entertainment Conference – Los Angeles New York DCTV – New York, NY Festival Cicio de Cine Chicano – University of Houston – Houston, TX Videographers of America Hayden Film Festival Pan American Film Festival Rhode Island College Multicultural/Unity Center PBS KBDI Channel 12 “Colorado Inside Out” Staten Island Muddy Cup – Staten Island, NY Moondance International Film Festival – Boulder, CO Tribal Libraries Institute – Montana State University – Bozeman, Montana Federal Heights Elementary School – 4th Grade – Denver, Colorado Broomfield Middle School – Broomfield, Colorado University of Denver – Denver, Colorado Cheyenne & Arapaho Veterans Memorial Day El Reno, Oklahoma 2017 55 Libraries in United States 42 U. S. Tribal Libraries
Interviews: “Indian Country” “16:9 Splice” Colorado Film and Video Association Newsletter “The Villager” “The Indiewood Reporter” Hollywood Lit. Sales “Colorado Springs Gazette” “The Denver Post” “Native Biz” “Centennial Citizen”
Radio Interviews: EarthCycles.net CFWE.ca Radio Canada “Dance with Life” Magazine
Educational Screenings and Viewings http://sandcreekmassacre.net/1427-2/
Donald L. Vasicek OLYMPUS FILMS+, LLC The Zen of Writing/Filmmaking/Consulting http://michaelc.nextmp.net/wordpress dvasicek@earthlink.net 303-903-2103 “You must be the change you want to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi
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